Two watches for every occasion: Union Viro Date & Tissot PRS 516

We‘veselectedtwoentry-level watches forthis watch pairs article. We don’t want to sound snobbish of course, as anything over a few hundred Euro is considered a luxury watch. However, compared to some of the previous watch pairs we‘vedescribed, the Union and Tissot are ata more accessible and affordable price point. The Union we‘veselectedis adresswatch,andtheTissot is a sports watch. Both brands belong to the Swatch Group and both carrydress watches as well as sports watches.

Union Glashütte is one of the brands from the German watch “mile“in the Glashütte village, near Dresden. Tissot is Swiss and has its headquarters in Bienne, where you’ll also find other Swatch Group brandsand Rolexproduction plants.Let’s takea closer look at these watches.

Union Viro Date

The Union Viro Date,is a handsomethree-hand watchwith a date window located at 6 o’clock. This watch is powered by ETA caliber 2892-A2. ETA also belongs to the Swatch Group andtheirmovementsareusedbydifferent brands withinandbeyondthegroup.Thismovement,whichhasbeen available since the early 1980s,isconsidered a real workhorse.It has alsobeenused by brands suchas Omega and IWC before they started creatingmovementsof their own.Thisprovesthat it is a movement with a solid track record thathas been used in watches withhigher price tags than theUnion Viro Datum. It has a power reserve of 42 hours.

The dial of the Viro Datum is available in severalversions, but our favorite is silver and featuresfour hour markers that are PVD coated inrose gold (5N). Thisprovidesgreat contrast and makes thedialmorereadable.The hands are also PVD coated inrose gold. The sleek case is made of stainless steel and measures 41mm in diameter and is 9mm thick. This is just one of the variations,however, thereare also versions with black hands and applied indexes.

Union Viro Date with black dial

Although the water resistance is 100 meters (~10 BAR), it isn’t wise to take this watch into the water due to its leather strap. However, at least you know it can handlesome moisture. It is a great all-around watchthat will suit casual attire (due to itsrelatively large size for a dress watch) and formal attire. However, it isn’t a sports watch. That is where the Tissot comes in.

Tissot PRS 516 Automatic

The PSR516 comes in many flavors, but we focusedin onthethree–hand version here. However, it is also available as a chronograph. Let’s beginbylookingatthemovementofthe PSR516. As Tissot is also part of the Swatch Group, manyoftheirwatchesare poweredbyETA movements as well. Hereis nodifferent:the PSR516‘sPowermatic 80 movement is based on ETA’s caliber 2824-2. You can forget about all these things if you are not interested, however, youshouldknow that this movement has been modified by ETA to give itapower reserve of—you guessedit —80 hours. This means that if you putyourTissotaside to wear yourUnion Glashütte for a few days, you can pick ituplaterwithoutneedingto windandset it.

Tissot PRS 516 Movement

The Tissot PSR516 has been in production for quite a while and is available in many different versions. Perhaps the sportiest three-hand PSR516 is the version with arubber strap, black PVD case, and carbon dial. It has a case diameter of 42mm and is almost 13mm thick. It‘snoteven that extreme, but itdoes look awesome. Theeye-catcher of this edition is the model with agold PVD case. Ofcourse,this doestake away the sportiness a bit. The PSR516 is also water resistant up to 100 meters (10 BAR)—and indeed, you can take this watch swimming.